Mahmoud Muna: Educational Bookshop

Mahmoud Muna is part of the family that runs the Educational Bookshop: the only English language bookstore in East Jerusalem. The current iteration of the Bookshop was opened in the 1980s by Mahmoud’s father, Ahmed. Today, the shop has multiple locations and thousands of titles on its shelves. "Any book on Palestine-Israel that has ever [been] written," Mahmoud says, "there's a good chance we have it."

When Unsettled producer Max Freedman visited Jerusalem at the start of 2020, he stopped by the Educational Bookshop and sat down with Mahmoud. In this episode of Unsettled, they talk about the history of the bookshop and what it means — to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and people around the world.

Unsettled is produced by Emily Bell, Asaf Calderon, Max Freedman, and Ilana Levinson. This episode was reported by Max Freedman and produced by Emily Bell. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

MAHMOUD’S PICKS: NON-FICTION

• Jerusalem in History by Kamil Asali
• I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti
• Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother’s Kitchen by Joudi Kalla
• In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi
• The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis
• Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh
• The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine—A Tale of Two Narratives by Padraig O’Malley
• The Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown by Afif Safieh
• Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh
• The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World by Avi Shlaim
• Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman

MAHMOUD’S PICKS: FICTION

• Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
• Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
• Out of It by Selma Dabbagh
• The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
• The Children of the Ghetto: My Name is Adam by Elias Khoury